Friday, September 7, 2012

Welcome one and all to Moments of the Week, where much like Huey Lewis & the News, we are going back in time! Plenty of DC Zero issues are on tap, from Action Comics to Earth-2 to Green Lantern, Ultimate Spider-Man finally gets a key spidey device, and Hawkeye aims for excellence. A big, big installment this week, so hit the jump to begin.

Action Comics #0

This looks to be Superman's first official appearance in terms of arriving at Metropolis, stopping gangsters from killing Lois. In the process he gets the wind knocked out of him, and a young kid steals his cape, and stands up to his mom's abusive drunk boyfriend.

The cape is really strong, no joke. The kids run away but the drunk follows them down to the train tracks:

More powerful than a locomotive indeed! And this is how Lois gives him the name Superman.

Amazing Spider-Man #693

Dan Slott is a tease with bringing MJ and Peter back together. As for Alpha, because he has no mask he gets captured by the Jackal and many clones of him are made, but fortunately his DNA wasn't altered, so you don't have a bunch of crazy powerful clones to deal with.

Jackal escapes of course, but even scarier is Alpha's desire to stay powered that he would willingly kill others to break free. Good thing they were just blobs of goo. He still had his family around though.

Ouch, Peter isn't going to accept this anymore:

Dun dun dunnnnn!

Animal Man #0

Buddy Baker, struggling actor, what is in store for him?

The Red establish the alien aspect as simply a cover that Buddy would accept more easily, and he is to act as nothing but a temporary avatar until he has another kid, which is Maxine, and is conceived after he gets this power.

I kind of like the idea Buddy just willingly put on the uniform because hey, why not? Naked in the woods, gotta wear something.

Bloodshot #3

That's Pulse, another modified person who, on top of hating the situation she's in, fires off EMP waves, the kind that would turn off Bloodshot's nanites and turn the ambulance into a 3 ton rolling cage (he's on the run to protect a small town from the effect). The issue ends with Bloodshot getting shot in the head, so we'll see how well that EMP blast worked with the next issue.

Detective Comics #0

The story sets this as ten years ago, so this was when Bruce was travelling the world looking for the skills he'd later use as Batman. Here he's in the Himalayas being taught by Shihan Matsuda and his wife, who I believe are new characters to the mythos and are explicitly named by Bruce as parental figures. Bruce also opens his heart up to a local shop clerk named Mio, who would be his first love since his parents died. Then one night it becomes too good to be true:

In a typical Batman fashion, loving someone will kill you, as even his sensei is betrayed by his longtime wife and his love is actual a hired assassin. It looks like a reason for Bruce's standoffish behavior is to explained before he became Batman, that it wasn't just his parents death that caused it.

Earth 2 #0

An as yet unknown hero on Earth 2, Terry Sloane was the fourth big hero in this world, as Mr. 8. Here the group attempts to turn off the Anti-Life equation being broadcasted in major countries around the world, indoctrinating millions of people. Once they get to the device, however, Sloane makes Superman fight Wonder Woman with modified Kryptonite. His reasoning?

Sloane then escapes by dimension hopping, and stays in the shadows until the three heroes sacrifice themselves to stop Apokolips:

So here we have the original Mr. Terrific basically being an even more crazy Lex Luthor for our new heroes.

Green Lantern #0

Say hello to the much hyped new Green Lantern, Simon Baz. And well, it's mentioned repeatedly throughout the issue multiple times that he's Muslim. A carjacker who accidentally picks up a truck timed to blow, he drives it to an abandoned auto factory instead of a busy downtown. Because he's the one in the vehicle, he's taken to Guantanamo Bay (yes, really), where it seems like the DCnU version of King Faraday is questioning him, as he knows Amanda Waller. How does the ring find him? Well, Baz is about to be waterboarded (yes, really), and because he fights back it looks like that's what catches the ring's attention.

And it looks like whatever Hal and Sinestro did to the ring in the GL Annual was wonky enough to make it get to someone who might be a mix of Hal and Sinestro's personalities.

Harvest #2

Ben takes up the offer of back alley surgeon, and comes across a rather shocking part of the job, when someone who needed a kidney doesn't show up for it. Ben leaves, but the guilt of leaving the person who agreed to giving up his organ on the table makes him return:

Ben finds out the guy has been harvested as much as physically possible
while still being alive (it's pretty graphic, I don't think I could post
it and feel comfortable). So with that revelation of what happens to
"donors," Ben and his hallucinatory little kid decide to break the guy free:

I just want to know if that is possible to make the gas cylinders become a rocket with a defibrillator. Has Mythbusters done something on this? So Ben is one the run from the leader of a black market organ harvesting operation, with a guy who is steps from death's door. A really good series, I recommend it a lot.

Hawkeye #2

Clint and Kate crash a traveling circus performance of thieves (trained by the old Swordsman) that is robbing the crimebosses of the Marvel universe via hypnosis. It's one of those situations where it might be better to just let the villains fight the villains, but the two intervene:

This art, it's so simple but the panels are effective, Aja is awesome. And violent, can't forget how crippling those arrow shots look. What to do with the money, that was probably already stolen to begin with? Take it, of course:

Phantom Stranger #0

In the DCnU the Phantom Stranger is Judas Iscariot, forced to wear the 30 pieces of silver around his neck and basically walks the world for thousands of years doing nothing until he is called on to help Jim Corrigan, a cop whose family is being threatened by local mobsters.

The Phantom Stranger believes he is helping but it is revealed he's actually walking Corrigan into a trap:

And with the Spectre appearing he is whisked away by God or that Pantheon from the FCBD issue to be the spirit of Vengeance (it's not explicit in whether he's the spirit of vengeance or God's wrath). It seems that this allows the Phantom Stranger to lose one of the pieces of silver that is permanently placed around his neck, showing he has 29 other acts to accomplish until he atones for his sins. But he waited two thousand years to just get one piece removed. It's odd, to say the least.

Swamp Thing #0

Alec Holland's origin is changed to have Arcane be the one who set the fire that "kills" him (Arcane is dressed in the skin of Alec's wife Linda). Arcane has traveled the world for decades, killing off the avatars of the Green before they can be chosen, young and old. So six years ago Alec died as you see above.

I'm not quite sure if this is removing Brightest Day or the Search for Swamp Thing or what, all I know is that a year ago Alec Holland reappeared from the swamp as a human, but he still had his Swamp Thing persona out there. Much like Animal Man it seems to be trying to keep the existing story and merging it with the classic origin.

Transformers: Robots In Disguise #9

So the Dinobots aren't dead, just crazy. This crazy seems to be theorized that the planet itself is making everyone outside of Bumblebee's city go a little crazy to keep them together, it's an interesting angle. Ironhide needs help, so he gets some big help from the Aerialbots:

Superion is so cool, that'll teach the Dinobots to not be so crazy. Although it seems like Superion might not be all there either.

Ultimate Spider-Man #14

Cap said no to being Spider-Man, everyone else says yes, and May gives Miles the shooters. Cue the hillarious training moment!

There we go, classic Spider-Man swinging pose accomplished. When all is said and done, including Cap and Miles taking down The Rhino, Cap warms up to the idea:

Venom #24

Flash's demon is actually being repressed by Flash himself, that is pretty cool in a reversal. It also has to do with the seal Mephisto placed on Flash during the Circle of Four. Of course there is a round two with Hellstrom, but this time more monsters:

And whatever is trapped in the symbiote, it's seen by the monsters as being its brother.

13
comments:

Earth 2 mentioned 8 heroes (Sloan being the 8th). The had Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Robin. With Sloan that's six, and he specifically did not name the other two. I wonder who they could be?

Stormwatch #0 was interesting too, showing the connection between the title and Demon Knights.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Micro Series #8 debuted this continuity's version of the Fugitoid.

As I said last time, I LOVE the Dinobots, so pluses all around for Transformers. The angle of Cybertron trying to keep everyone together is pretty cool.

World's Finest #0 was also nice in showing how Helena and Kara first met.

I'm sure they will, since we already got the forces of Apokolips appearing on Earth 2. I wouldn't be surprised if Darkseid was doing some kind of invasion across the Multiverse. We know he was looking for his daughter (from Justice League #6).

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